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Lost Recap: "Recon" Packed With Winks and Nods

After a multi-episode absence, everyone's favorite confidence man returned with a vengeance... and a plan... in this week's Lost.

"Recon" was the corollary to season 1's "Confidence Man," and producers were quick to remind us of that fact with a Sideways sequence that presented a distorted mirror image of Sawyer's flashbacks in that earlier episode. The episode was packed to the gills with self-referential winks and nods, not to mention some huge leaps forward toward the end game of the series. I still have no idea where everything is headed by series' end, but with each turn of the screw, I'm compelled to keep watching.

Without further ado, let's get to recapping:

Chillin' at Camp Crazy Chick

We open on Sawyer in Claire's camp, brewing up something hot to sip on (DHARMA brand coffee? Tea? Dirty mystic temple hot tub water?) He awakens Jin, who's been out for some time. Jin is immediately ready to bolt before Crazy Aussie Chick and Undead Mr. Clean can return. Sawyer announces that he's sticking around because Fake Locke has promised to get him off the Island. Jin doesn't want to leave until he finds Sun. (Trust me, Jin, we're all with you on that. Get these two back together already!) Sawyer promises not to leave without them. With that, Sawyer begins to gather his flock with the promise of shepherding them home.

But Sawyer's not like that other Shephard. Unlike Jack, he doesn't call his shots and go boldly charging forward. He's a con man. He works the angles. When Locke and Claire return, they are accompanied by the surviving Others, the increasingly unhinged Sayid and Kate, who still has no idea how far she is in over her head. Kate and Sawyer share a meaningful glance and few words. "Hi," she says. "Hi yourself," is his response. This exchange felt familiar to me. Thanks to the good people at Lostpedia, I found out why. In season 3's "I Do," these characters share almost exactly the same exchange (only substituting "hey" for "hi.") "I Do" was the final episode in which Kate and Sawyer were caged on Hydra Island (and the one in which the two consummated their long flirtation.)

Sideways Vice

It's interesting to note that this homage to imprisonment was used as the segue to our first Sideways World scene of the evening. We see Sawyer in bed with an unidentified woman, sharing a moment of post-coital bliss. She notes the time, suggesting that he'll be late for a meeting. Something about this seems familiar. Sawyer hops up, pulls on his pants and grabs a briefcase. As you might suspect, the briefcase pops open and bundles of cash come tumbling out. So far, this is almost a word-for-word duplicate of Sawyer's first flashback scene in "Confidence Man." One notable difference is that the mark calls him "Jimmy."

As Sawyer goes into his pitch about a potential investment, the girls spins to train a gun on him. She's a con man's wife, and she's seen a "pigeon drop" before. Sawyer, seemingly trying to get the upper hand, tells her that the place is surrounded by cops and they only want her husband. A tracer in the money would have led them to him. In explaining why the cops haven't busted down the doors, he says he only has to utter "the magic word" to make it happen. When she calls him a terrible con man and cocks her pistol, Sawyer cooly utters that magic word: LaFleur. That's right, the word the Sawyer uses for safety and salvation is the very name under which he found safety and salvation during his DHARMA years with Juliet.

If, as I suspect, the Sideways World is a constructed reality, a prison of wish-fulfillment and the illusion of free will, then it's evident why Sideways James Ford would choose LaFleur as his safe word.

When the cops bust in, Miles is the lead detective. He tosses Sawyer a badge and says, "put on your shirt, Jim." "You got it, partner." When the woman remarks, incredulously, "you're a cop?" Detective James Ford responds in a wink to the audience, "Surprised?" Personally, no. Some may recall that I predicted following the season premiere that this Sawyer would not be a con man. That brushing sound you hear is me dusting off my lapels in faux arrogance.

The more I watch this season, the more I'm loving my Sideways World theory. Here, we find Sawyer living life under his own name, working as a detective with Miles as his partner and, curiously, not using an abundance of nicknames. (In fact, in a reversal, his mark in the opening scene called him Dimples.) These choices make sense when viewed through Wayne's Magical Wish-Fulfillment Filter. He's not living life on the run; trusting no one and assuming the identity of the man on whom he seeks vengeance. He and Miles are not, as their Island counterparts had, making their way at the expense of others. Rather, they are working in expanded (fantasy?) versions of the roles they held in the DHARMA hierarchy; roles in which they found a more noble purpose. In those heady DHARMA days, Miles had become Sawyer's closest confidant, save Juliet. Now, in the Sideways World, he's the person to whom Sawyer literally entrusts his life.

INSIDER-Y INFO!

Josh Holloway hails from the small farming community of Free Home, Georgia. When he was growing up, there was a simpleton ranch hand in town named... James Ford. I know this because my business partner grew up in Free Home. (His sister went to school with Holloway.) The real James Ford worked on their family's cattle ranch.

A Con Man by Any Other Name

Let's continue by sticking with the Sideways World. I find it interesting that Sawyer is not merely a beat cop in this reality. He's a detective. A successful detective must be able to dig into a case, discern the subtleties in a person's stories and ferret out the truth. "It's all about the details," as his Island doppelganger would say. In James Ford's case, he must also be able to work undercover (and, apparently, under the covers.) Given those job requirements, what is a detective but a legitimized con man? This version of Dimples possesses all the same skills, flaws and the same haunted history, only he's found a way to apply them in a more productive - and legal - fashion, at least to a point. As he tells blind date Charlotte, he came to a point where he would either be a cop or a criminal. He chose cop. His Island doppelganger went the other way.

The blind date with Charlotte was the handiwork of Miles. Sideways Charlotte is an archaeologist who works at a museum with Miles' father. Here again, is an example of a healed father-son relationship. As you may recall, in the Island timeline, Miles was raised by his mother after his father, Pierre Chang, forced them to leave the Island prior to the Incident. Here, they apparently have a normal, healthy relationship. The question is, was Chang a part of the DHARMA Initiative in the Sideways World as well? Either way, he got out alive.

In a quick aside, Miles mentions that he has a girlfriend of his own. However, we are never told nor shown who this mystery woman is. How much do you want to bet she's someone we've seen before? Maybe someone he met at work? Maybe... Ana Lucia?

Although James trusts Miles with both his life and his love life, he does not trust him with his greatest secret. Before learning of his blind date, James was calling a list of Anthony Coopers, trying to determine which one was in Alabama in 1976; trying to determine which one indirectly caused the death of his parents under the name of Tom Sawyer.

INSIDER-Y INFO!

According to those who grew up with Josh Holloway in Free Home, his father looked like Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by an actor. Sawyer's father died as the result of the work of a con man who operated under the guise of different characters, much as an actor would. Lincoln was assassinated in a theatre named... Ford. Coincidence or conspiracy? Discuss.

In Search of Anthony Cooper

Although we've already learned that John Locke and his father have a positive relationship in the Sideways World, we now learn that he is a con man, or at least was in the '70s. Is he still? Or has he somehow reformed, allowing him to appreciate his son rather than simply exploiting him for a kidney? Such questions don't enter the mind of Detective James Ford. When Charlotte stumbles upon his secret Sawyer files, he flies into a rage and kicks her out of his apartment.

Later, Miles confronts him. James thinks it about his treatment of Charlotte. In reality, Miles had run James' credit card to find out what he was hiding about his alleged weekend trip to Palm Springs. He learned that James had really been in Australia. Miles views this hoarding of secrets as a breach of their trust, leading him to give up on James as his partner.

In an effort to make things right with Charlotte, he shows up at her door with a six-pack and a sunflower. He presents the flower to her with a grin, echoing his same gesture toward Juliet in "LaFLeur." However, Charlotte is not his Sideways Juliet. She rebuffs him, telling him he blew it.

He finally meets up with Miles to come clean about his secret. Interestingly, at several points in his Sideways story, James is encouraged by others to "tell the truth." In each case he does so, even if reluctantly. It's as if this version of himself, doesn't really want to lie. In fact, he doesn't seem very good at it. (More wish-fulfillment?) He hands Miles the Sawyer folder and confesses to him the story of his parents. Further, he explains that his trip Down Under was to follow up on a lead. There he learned the name Anthony Cooper. And when he finds this Cooper, he plans to kill him.

Just as Miles is about to lay down both the figurative and literal law about why he won't allow James to do so, a car careens out of control and slams into theirs. The driver gets out and runs. James cranks his car and heads out after her. When he finally catches up, it's Kate. He immediately recognizes her from the LAX elevator in which he noticed her handcuffs. Why didn't he turn her in then? Because it would have meant revealing his own secret. And maybe it also had something to do with those freckles...

Cutting the Head off the Hydra

In the Island timeline, Fake Locke sends Sawyer on a mission: recon Hydra Island to determine if there is anyone there who means to do them harm. Locke's stated goal is to board the Ajira plane and fly away to freedom. Uh huh. Sure you will. When Sawyer ironically remarks that the mission sounds safe, Locke states that he's not worried, because Sawyer's the "best liar I ever met." Correct me if I'm wrong, but Smokey/Man in Black/Fake Locke has never spent any time with Sawyer when he's at his con man best (or worst.) That means he must be tapping into the memories of the real John Locke, and that will be important to consider when breaking down a later scene.

Arriving at Hydra, Sawyer discovers that the survivors of Ajira 316 are all dead and piled in a stinking heap. He spots someone running through the jungle and tracks her down. Her name is Zoe, and she claims to be "the only one left." She tells a harrowing story of being out collecting firewood when she heard screaming coming from her fellow survivors. By the time she got back, they were all dead. Sawyer says he will take her back to the main island with him. She begins quizzing him about how many are with him and whether they have guns. Sawyer pulls a gun on her and tells her she's "good, but not that good." Was it the not-so-subtle talk of guns and numbers? Or was he tipped off by the knowledge that log carriers are always offed on the Island?

When Zoe calls in the reinforcements (in a clever nod back to Sawyer's Sideways sting operation), Sawyer simply obliges their commands and says, "Take me to your leader." They trek across Hydra to a dock where a submarine is parked. Along the way, Sawyer takes note of the number of armed men he spies and the fact that some in the party are setting up a portable sonic fence.

He descends into the sub, like a figurative descent into Hell, and begins to strike a bargain with the resident devil, Charles Widmore. Widmore knows exactly who Sawyer is, and it seems as if Sawyer is exactly whom he expected. Once again, Widmore seems to possess a greater (and as yet unexplained) knowledge not only of current events, but of events yet to pass. He tells Sawyer he pities how little the con man really knows about what's going on, this statement being a nod back to a similar comment made by Fake Locke to Richard Alpert in "The Substitute."

Sawyer promises to bring Fake Locke right to Widmore's floating doorstep, provided Widmore gives Sawyer and his chosen flock immunity from whatever he has planned for the "smoke thing" masquerading as a dead man. A couple of questions arise about this sequence: 1. What's in the locked compartment that Sawyer went out of his way to mention? Could it be whatever (or whomever) will imprison the castaway souls in the Sideways World? If so, maybe that means Sideways Locke isn't necessarily the "real" Locke. Maybe he's an amalgam of the Fake Locke and the increasingly enlivened memories of the real Locke. 2. Why doesn't Widmore leave the sub? For a man who has plotted for 30-plus years to return to a place, he doesn't seem very eager to set foot on its soil. Perhaps he can't. Perhaps to do so, with Jacob now dead and Smokey still roaming about would make him Jacob's replacement by default. Or perhaps it would make him the new Smokey. I'm not really sure how that would work; I'll have to ponder this more over the weekend.

Sawyer returns to the main Island and reports back to Locke that all the Ajira survivors are dead. (Who killed them, anyway? Widmore? Smokey? Angry polar bears wanting their fish biscuits?) He further explains the deal he made with Widmore. Like a skilled double agent, he convinces Fake Locke that all they need do is alter their plans based on Widmore's expectations. Locke thanks Sawyer for his loyalty which Sawyer quickly explains away as nothing more than a mercenary move to get off the Island.

He later confides in "Freckles" that he's simply playing both bald ends against the middle. His real plan is to let the two sides duke it out. Then, in the midst of the fray, he and his flock will steal the sub.

One Crazy Mother

While Sawyer is off on his recon mission, Kate starts to get some idea just how deep her travails are. First, she is faced with the creepy, Stepford Sayid. When she asks if he's alright, he simply replies, "No." Then Claire attacks her from behind and holds a knife to her throat. Kate is saved only by the intervention of Fake Locke. His royal Shape-Shiftiness slaps some sense into Claire and tells her in a very paternal voice, "this is inappropriate." Interesting choice of words.

In an effort to gain Kate's trust, he tells her that he understands what she's feeling. By way of explanation, he tells her that before he "looked like this," his mother was crazy. Because of her, he's still working through some "growing pains... problems that could have been avoided had things been different." I don't completely buy this story. Based upon Terry O'Quinn's interesting line readings - struggling to bring forward the memories and to put them into words - I believe that Smokey is actually usurping the memories of the real John Locke in order to make himself more sympathetic to those he would control. He admitted to lying to Claire about where Aaron was. He lied to Sawyer about the reason for his recon mission - not unlike Jacob sending Jack down a rabbit hole in "Lighthouse." In fact, I think he's lying most of the time and only tells the truth when it helps his long con, a perfect example being the moment earlier in this episode when he confided to Sawyer that he was, in fact, the "smoke thing."

Think about what he told Sawyer in "The Substitute" about having been a man once. He talked of love lost and heartbreak. He could have been drawing on Locke's own memories of Helen. Recall that shortly after that, he blurted out to the mystery jungle boy, "Don't tell me what I can't do," channeling the frustration and angst of the real John Locke. I've suspected before that the essence of the real Locke will exert itself more and more until he actually defeats Smokey in his own body and is, in a sense, resurrected. I think this scene with Kate was a nod to that possibility.

Sometime later, Claire approaches Kate in the jungle and apologizes for her actions. She says she understands that what Kate did was only for Aaron's good. She bursts into tears and hugs Kate. Kate, having had undoubtedly the weirdest day of her life, is slow to respond, but eventually returns the embrace. Whatever darkness has gripped Claire's heart seems to be losing its hold.

What's Next?

The promo for next week's episode promises some answers all Lost fans have long hoped for; answers about Richard Alpert. Will there be a Sideways story? If so, will it be in his own time of the 19th century? Or will it be in the modern era, contemporary to the other Sideways stories we've seen thus far. If there are flash sideways, then I think the nature of the Sideways World will be clearer than ever. Either way, Guyliner promises to regale his companions, and all of us, with some killer fireside ghost stories.

I know there's a ton of stuff I neglected to mention, like the cameo by Charlie's brother Liam in the Sideways World, Detective Ford's book collection and many others, but I've taken long enough to get to this point. Let's hear from you; what did you think of this stellar outing?